Having set and met a relatively difficult goal (as these things go) for coming up with a Janet Fielding gallery, the THT Brain Wizards went casting about for another, perhaps even more difficult, challenge during the latest large gap between nu-Who seasons.
Then providence intervened in that particular form of serendipity that sometimes happens when watching ‘classic’ British television. In the last episode of the 9th series of Minder titled ‘For a Few Dollars More’ (Aired April 1, 1993) the last of a trilogy of stories largely set in Australia there he was as ‘Swan’ a very posh official in the British Consulate, Mark Strickson.
This not only delighted the Brain Wizards for the surprise of it all but also raised a question insofar as ‘we’ thought Strickson had mostly moved on from acting to become a documentarian. As it turns out ‘we’ were right but for the wrong reasons. This episode of Minder is almost at the end of Strickson’s CV as an actor whilst his documentary-work occurs from 2000 right up to the present day.
Still this spurred ‘us’ from our lethargy to produce a new Mark Strickson — Who Not Who! gallery and found images of Strickson were even harder to find than those for Fielding. There are plenty of pictures of Strickson from various convention events, where he has been a regular presence for quite awhile, but as a rule the Tour tries to stay away from most of these snaps-with-a-fan images for less ‘personal’ stuff.
Yet we persevered.
Then we discovered another problem. These companion-based galleries started back when we broke out Elisabeth Sladen into her own space. Now with the Strickson gallery up and running we have surveyed the classic Who landscape only to find all of the really ‘significant’ (quote marks needed but not intended) companions covered in this respect. In fact there’s only one left in this area that we can think of in this respect.
And that will be the biggest challenge (as these things go) yet.